Game-changing Manhattan Transfer brings final tour to San Diego

The Manhattan Transfer is taking one last spin around the globe, and we will not see their likes again.

Since launching in 1972 helmed by the late Tim Hauser, the vocal quartet has succeeded again and again while restlessly exploring a broad spectrum of styles, from Brazilian jazz, R&B, and pop music to a cappella and vocalese, the intricate art of setting lyrics to solos from instrumental jazz recordings.

Along the way, the Transfer has picked up 11 Grammy Awards, sold millions of albums, and scored several hits, becoming part of the pop cultural landscape in a way that paved the path for a cappella stars like Pentatonix (who featured the Manhattan Transfer on a 2016 Christmas album).

Following last year’s Grammy-nominated album “Fifty” featuring Cologne’s WDR Funkhausorchester, the group set out on what it’s calling a “final world tour,” which includes a concert presented by ArtPower on Wednesday at UC San Diego.

The ensemble’s final incarnation features two original members, alto Janis Siegel and tenor Alan Paul, as well as soprano Cheryl Bentyne, who replaced founder Laurel Massé in 1979 as the band reached its widest audience in the 1980s.

Bass Trist Curless replaced Hauser following his death in 2014, though he’d subbed in the group several years earlier when Hauser was ailing. As a member of the Los Angeles jazz a capella group m-pact before joining the Manhattan Transfer, Curless came of age in on a vocal scene profoundly shaped by the group, which gave him an outsider’s insight in figuring out how to encapsulate half a century of music.

“I’m the new kid, though it’s close to 10 years, and knowing this is the last hurrah I have a perspective as a fan,” he said. “One thing I always enjoyed is the group has had a variety of stylistic opportunities. We’re trying to get a good spectrum and not have the show be four hours.”

The group’s longevity means that some of the material has been out of rotation for so long it would require an inordinate amount of work to get it polished and presentable. But no matter what’s on the set list the Manhattan Transfer’s motor and secret weapon is the band that accompanies the vocalists, led by Israeli-born pianist Yaron Gershovsky, who’s been touring and recording with the group since 1979.

Russian-born bassist Boris Kozlov, a busy New York freelancer who holds down the Mingus Big Band’s daunting bass chair and serves as musical director for several Mingus-related ensembles, has anchored the rhythm section for the past decade, while drummer Ross Pederson signed on about five years ago. Guitarist Pete McCann was hired for the final tour, and as a top-shelf New York improviser with a gorgeous new album, “Without Question,” he adds considerably to group’s jazz resources.

But Gershovsky, who helped blaze a trail for today’s profusion of excellent Israeli musicians on the New York jazz scene, signed on at the start of the ride when the Transfer crossed over into pop stardom. With a string of hits like “Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone” and “Birdland,” which featured vocalese legend Jon Hendricks’ lyrics for Weather Report’s fusion anthem, the group started racking up Grammys.

Enmeshed in the pop cultural firmament, including major label backing and regular network television appearances, the Transfer embraced numerous opportunities to try out new sounds. “With singles coming out, if ‘Twilight Zone’ was side A, side B was ‘Body and Soul,’” Gershovsky said, referring to the venerable jazz standard. “There couldn’t be any more different styles than disco and ‘Body and Soul.’ They were always open to do different things.”

With the release of the 1981 Atlantic album “Mecca for Moderns,” the Manhattan Transfer became the first group to win Grammys in both popular and jazz categories the same year. And with 1985’s “Vocalese,” a deep dive into the art form perfected by late 1950s vocal stars Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, “we started to do all these big jazz festivals, Montreux and North Sea, alongside stars like Miles Davis and George Benson,” Gershovsky said.

While the music world that nurtured and sustained the Transfer has largely faded away, their influence is still pervasive, said Sara Gazarek, a Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist who was recently hired by Eastman School of Music to build a new jazz vocal program.

“This group of incredible musicians and singers who were writing complex arrangements of jazz took the tradition of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross into the late 20th century,’ said Gazarek, who performs around the Bay Area next month with the four-women vocal ensemble säje. “They pushed this genre, the human voice informed by jazz rhythms and harmonies, and now there’s a lot of collegiate-level jazz ensembles deeply informed by the Manhattan Transfer.”